"Microsoft will make available the preliminary versions of technical documentation for the protocols built into Microsoft Office 2007, SharePoint Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2007. This documentation, which defines how these high-volume Microsoft products communicate with some of its other products, is 14000 pages and is in addition to the 30000 pages posted when the software giant first introduced its new Interoperability Principles last month. They will be made available April 8."

That fine print hasn't been released yet, according to the article. You should probably wait until they release even a hint of what the patent restrictions will be before criticizing them.

Fine print may have been the wrong terminology, but the fact of the matter still remains that some of these are patented protocols which will require patent licenses to use the protocols. Don't forget that Microsoft is trying to court the OSS community here. It's a move against Red Hat and IBM and others who benefit from the community work that haven't signed patent agreements with Microsoft.

From the article:

In June, Microsoft will also publish a list of the protocols that are covered by patents, and will make available a patent map containing a list of the specific Microsoft patents and patent applications that cover each protocol, when the final version of the protocols are available, Robertson said.

The company will also release the final patent pricing and licensing terms at that time. “As we work over the coming months on feedback on the protocols themselves, we are also going to be completing the patent map for each of these protocols,” Robertson said.